The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) employees on Friday went on an indefinite strike, affecting public transport services in Mumbai and inconveniencing commuters.
“Since morning, there were only 38 buses across various bus depots. Of which, six buses had to return since there were incidents of stone pelting on buses. As of now, there are 32 buses on the road,” said a BEST spokesperson.
The authorities did not give clarity on the number of buses which usually ply during the morning across the city.
BEST has a total fleet of around 2,700 buses that are parked inside 27 depots and bus stations. Of these, only 249 are owned buses while the remaining are on wet lease.
To be sure, wet-lease bus systems allow public transit authorities to hire private operators to supply, maintain, and drive buses, while the authority handles ticketing and routing.
However, since the wee hours of Friday, buses are not operational due to the strike called by the ‘BEST Joint Workers’ Action Committee’.
“The strike has been a success till now. No buses are leaving the depots,” said Uday Ambonkar, president, BEST Joint Workers’ Action Committee.
“We have also reached out to wet lease employees who too have participated”, he said.
The unions have sought absorption of wet-lease workers, procurement of 5,000 BEST-owned buses, recruitment of staff, promotions for senior employees, and protection of BEST assets from sale or long-term leasing.
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They are also demanding merger of BEST’s budget with the main BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) budget, inducting wet lease staff and buses within BEST and payment of statutory dues to retired employees.
The BEST officials said that on Thursday evening, the Industrial Court passed an Ad-interim Order in favour of BEST.
“Accordingly the employees of Undertaking and Wet lease Operators represented by Unions involved in the ‘BEST Kamgar Sanyukt Kruti Samiti’ have been restrained from proceeding on strike from midnight of June 18,” said a BEST official.
